Excellent Picnic, Leopard Boy, Screaming and What Actually Happens During Quiet Time

Sunday we always try to have some sort of quiet time. We can only do this if we don't have late church because by the time we get home from church it is too late--luckily we don't get the late church time for 8 more months. The kids also had extended quiet time today because they had a few problems during Stake Conference today. For Stake Conference I stayed home with Noah and Sarah while Aaron took Matthew, Josh and Daniel. The boys did fairly well during the meeting, but as soon as the meeting ended Matthew took a paper away from Josh and Josh SCREAMED that horrible ear piercing scream that makes anyone within hearing distance turn around to see who is getting their arm cut off. Nice. Anyway, the kids came home and after a quick lunch they needed some quiet time to practice how to get along and not ever scream like that again unless they really are getting their arm cut off. Quiet time is where we send the kids to their rooms to either have a nap, read or play QUIETLY for two hours. During today's quiet time Daniel and Josh collaborated and came up with their own comic book. It is called The Josh and Daniel Adventures. They are pretty proud of their creation. I had to have them explain some of the story line (well, all the story line) since I couldn't tell everything that was going on. In the story they were walking along and got into their ship. Then the evil girl came out to get them. They also had a computer come to life and try to scan them in. Pretty creative stuff, huh?! I love how creative kids can get! At least it kept them quiet during quiet time which is always a bonus!

Noah had a fever for a few days so I took him in to the pediatrician's office. That's where I was told he had really bad double ear infections. I went and picked up the antibiotic and started him on it. After two more days he still was really fussy and his fever wasn't breaking. I was worried the antibiotic wasn't working. I was about to call the pediatrician for a different antibiotic when I picked Noah up from his nap and noticed he had a bright red spotty rash from head to toe. He had so many spots he looked like a leopard. However, his fever had finally broken. Come to find out he had a viral infection called Roseola in addition to his double ear infections. The poor kid was completely miserable for a few days, but he is doing great now. He is back to his happy, mostly no crying, laid back self. I wasn't too worried because all the rest of my kids have had Roseola when they were about the same age as Noah. It lasts a few days and then they are better. I even had it as a baby. When I had it as a baby it caused me to have a febrile seizure and fall out of the high chair. It scared my Mom to death, but I healed up completely within a few days just like all the rest of my kids. The few days Noah has had it we nicknamed him Leopard Boy because that's what he looked like with all the spots. Now you can't even tell he has been sick except for the twice daily dose of antibiotics for his ears.

Sarah gets into enough mischief, but I also have to show she has a really sweet side, too. Friday she went and found a rag and started dusting everything without being asked. She was happily cleaning and it was nice. She isn't all mischief, but she is close. All the loves, kisses, hugs and kweezes (squeezes) almost makes up for most of the trouble she causes. Matthew is on a behavior plan at school. The last few months have been pretty rough, but things have been getting better the last couple weeks. Matthew's regular teacher for some reason has gone on extended leave for the rest of the year. No one knows why (or if they do they are not telling us) they just know she suddenly left and won't be returning for the rest of the school year. That meant Matthew and his class got a permanent substitute for the rest of the year. It is interesting when he got his new teacher that is when his behavior problems seemed to have gotten better, hmmmmm. Anyway, Matthew gets a daily rating of Excellent, Good, Fair and Rough. The last few months he has struggled to get even a good rating. We have had a fair share of Fair and Rough days. To encourage Matthew we told him if he could have a Good day he could get an ice cream. When he got his new teacher he started getting plenty of Good days. We finally upped the ante to Excellent days if he wanted any kind of treat. He started getting a few Excellent days, but never two in a row. We upped the ante again if he could get two Excellent days in a row we would take him out to dinner. He LOVES going out to eat. I thought this would take longer to get so we wouldn't have to worry about it for a while. I was wrong and pleasantly surprised to find he got two Excellent days in a row last Thursday and Friday. When he came home Friday he insisted we HAD to go out. That was one agreement I was glad to follow through on!! Now having a family of 7 it gets a little pricey to take everyone to an actual restaurant. So we decided to grab a pizza and go on a picnic. Matthew seemed to be ok with that. Whew!! (You never know what kind of reaction you will get from him.) Anyway, a few weeks ago Matthew in scouts made a kite and he has been obsessed with it ever since. He has asked, begged, pleaded with us to go out and fly it every single day. I must say that the kite he made in scouts really didn't seem able to fly so we ended up getting a store bought kite for him instead. Well you can't get a store bought kite for one kid and not the rest of them so Josh and Daniel got a kite, too. We decided since we were going on a picnic everyone could bring their kites along. Matthew is also obsessed with trains and there is a park by our house that is right next to some railroad tracks that Matthew always wants to go to. We got to the park and ate our pizza (nuggets for Daniel) and then headed over to try out the new kites. Matthew was only interested in flying a kite when there were no trains coming by. If a train came by Matthew dropped his kite and ran over to watch it. Here he is excited jumping up and down flapping his hands while he is watching the train (Frontrunner) go by. The wind seemed to play tricks on us. We would get some steady wind and then as soon as you got the kite up in the air the wind would stop and the kite would fall. It got a little frustrating to say the least. Here is evidence that we did get the kites airborne for a few minutes at least.

Leopard Boy (aka Noah) was happy hanging out in his stroller on the pathway while everyone was attempting to fly their kites.Here's the boys getting some help from Dad. Matthew saw another train and immediately lost interest in his kite as long as the train was going by.We were just getting the hang of things when we got a call from our realtor saying someone wanted to come and see our house in 30 minutes. Eeeek!! Since I had taken care of 8 kids the night before and that morning I was worn out. I did manage to pick up, but our house was not sparkling clean enough for a showing. We quickly gathered everything and everyone up and ran over to the car to come home to do a speedy mad cleaning frenzy. After we had gotten everyone in the car the realtor called back and told us the people now wanted to come a different day. Doh!! Oh well we had a fun picnic before it abruptly ended. Dang having our house on the market!! Anyway, I now think I will have to up the behavior ante again. Maybe having a WHOLE week of excellent days. Let's hope Matthew and I can follow through on that promise!! I will be anxiously waiting and hoping for that to happen.